Manager's Verdict

We cleaned up against Ajax. Good win, decent performance, household cleaners have nothing on us.

Sad joke I know, and Martin O'Neill has more taste than to make that sort of jibe, but hey this is me....sod it.

Speaking on the official site after the match our manager delighted himself in our win and didn't really have a bad word to say against anyone.

Our team, Ajax, the fans and most surprisingly the complete fool who was in charge of the match.

'I am absolutely delighted. I was told before the game that the atmosphere would be fantastic and it was.

'The onus was on us to perform which I think we did. We deserved to win.

'There were some great performances in the side too. Gabby was sensational and Gareth was fantastic and Stiliyan too. But you could go through the team.

'Overall, I thought the tempo - particularly after half-time - was excellent.

'I thought there were little periods after they equalised where they had good possession of the ball and we dropped a bit too deep. We rectified that in the second half.

'We started to press them a bit higher up the pitch and that did the trick and we won the game - and deservedly so.

'We knew they would be a good passing side having seen the DVD's beforehand.

'Ajax can play - so it was a big win for us. People think that because they are not top of the league that they are not a good side. On their day, their passing capabilities are good enough for the Champions League.

'But we must remember we have some fantastic players in our side too.'

One of the more boring after match verdicts I feel.

But who cares.

We won a game we were all worrying about, we all wondered if we would turn up and if we didn't, get passed to death.

Let's enjoy the victory, let's enjoy taking a good scalp tonight.

Villa v Ajax, it takes a fan to bet on those odds. And tonight the fans won.

Apparently Carew was feeling ill. I was a bit dissapointed with Milner. He had the moves but gave to ball away too many times. Gabby was excellent on his own upfront. Cueller & Laursen looked good together. I is a very happy villan.

Decent performance that, with a stronger forward line I think we could have buried them. I'm suprised how dodgy they looked at the back. I thought our two full backs worked really hard last night, fair play to them. According to the radio last night Carew was out as he was ill.

We all know what milner can do,just let him settle in,As far as the game is concerned it was thrilling just to have a fixture like that again after so long out of europe,So to win it was brilliant and the experiece would have done the younger lads the world of good.Well done martin and the lads.

Milner was good 2nd half I thought, particularly at the end when we needed an outlet. He should have had a penno too. Looking at Spurs earlier in the evening, that's what they were badly misssing, the likes of young Ashley and James to take the bull by the horns. Bentley and Jenas my arse